Self-fastening spring-tooth for hay-rikes or other implements.



No. 728,592. PATENTED MAY 19, 1903 J. MACPHAIL.

SELF FASTENING SPRING TOOTH FOR HAY RAKES OR OTHER IMPLEMENTS.

APPLIOATION FILED 00121, 1902.

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Indeni'or:

UNITED STATE Patented May 19, 1903.

PATENT Prion.

JAMES MAOPI-IAIL, OF BLUE ISLAND, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO INTERNA- TIONALHARVESTER COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF NEIV JERSEY.

SELF-FASTENING SPRING-TOOTH FOR HAY-RAKES OR OTHER IMPLEMENTS.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 728,592, dated May 19,1903.

Application filed October 1, 1902.

To ztZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES MAOPHAIL, a citizen of the United States,residing at Blue Island, county of Cook, State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Self-FasteningSpring-Teeth for Hay-Rakes or other Implements; and I do hereby declarethe following to be a full, clear, and exact description of theinvention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which itappertains to make and use the same.

Although the invention is of general application to all implementsemploying springteeth, it relates more especially to the manner ofsecuring the spring-teeth of horse hayrakes to the heads of the rakesand has for its particular object to do away with all bolts, nuts, andother separate fastening devices, as well as to avoid the cutting orperforating of the heads.

Of late years it has become quite common to make the tooth-heads ofhorse hay-rakes out of angle-iron, various formssuch as channel-iron,T-iron, dad-being used. The

teeth of these rakes are now invariably made of spring-wire, and theyare usually secured to the angle-iron heads by bolts, nuts, or otherfastenings that are separate from the heads and teeth. Sometimes,however, these fas- 0 tenings have been dispensed with and the flangesof the heads have been provided with perforations or slots or otherwiseout to receive the end portions of the teeth.

The present invention has been devised 5 with a view to obviate thenecessity of cutting or slotting the heads in any way, as well as to doaway with all bolts, nuts, or other separate fastenings; and it consistsin so bending the upper ends of the teeth that they 0 will grip theheads exteriorly and by their own resilience hold themselves fi rmlyinplace.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, where Figure1 is an elevation of a portion of a 5 tooth-head, looking at thefrontside; and Fig. 2 is a cross-section of the head, showing the mannerof bending the tooth to adapt it to automatically fasten itself to ahead of the channel-iron form.

Referring to the Views, a is the head. As

Serial No. 125.549. (Nomoclelb here shown it is made of ordinarychanneliron with two horizontal flanges and one vertical flange. It isto be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to theemployment of a head of this form, as any other form of head may beemployed that is angular in cross-section.

The tooth b is made of spring-wire, as usual, and is provided near itsupper end with two coils c 0, one of which is made a little smaller thanthe other for a purpose that will presently be explained. Beyond thecoils the wire of the tooth is bent horizon tally forward, as at d, soas to lie flat upon the top of the upper horizontal flange of the head,and from the front upper corner 6 of the channel-iron it extends fartherforward and downward and is then bent upwardly, backwardly, andforwardly, forming an eye or ringf, after which the end of the wire iscontinued farther downwardly along the front vertical face of thechannel-iron, as at g, to the front lower corner e, where it is providedwith a short rearwardly-extending horizontal portion h, that liesagainst the under surface of the lower horizontal flange and is parallelwith the forward extension d, above referred to. The vertical portion 9of the wire is preferably bowed outwardly, as shown in Fig. 2, so as togive it thenecessary resiliency, and it will be noted that upperflangeof the head is firmly gripped between this vertical part of thewire and the bend formed at h between the coils c c and the forwardextension. With this construction the tooth has a grip upon the head atthe three exterior angles of the head-viz. h,

e, and e'-which is sufficient for all practical purposes. The largerone, o, of the coils c c is, however, utilized to still further steadyand strengthen the fastening, and for this purpose it is made of a sizeto bear against theinterior walls of the channeled or recessed rear faceof the head. The other coil,.c", is made a little smaller, so as not tobear against the walls of the head, the reason for this be- 5 ing thatcontact with these walls destroys the elasticity of the coils, and asthe working resilience of the tooth is derived largely from these coilsit would be impractical to have them both bear on the head. The coil 0'beiug therefore free of the inner walls of the recessed head it is freeto impart the necessary resilience to the working part of the tooth. Theconstruction being as thus described, it only remains to be noted thatthe essential feature of the arrangement is that, whatever the form ofthe head is, the tooth should be bent at its upper end into angular formcorresponding to its exterior angles. Therefore other forms ofheads-such as T- iron, angle-iron, &c.-are equally within the spirit andscope of the invention as the form herein illustrated. It is also to benoted that, although the invention is above described in connection withhorse hay-rakes, it is appli-. cable to harrows, cultivators, and otherin1- plements and machines that employ springteeth which are secured tobars or heads.-

The invention and the claims hereinafter made thereon are not to beunderstood, therefore, as limited to the machine herein illustrated anddescribed or to any particular machine or implement.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure,is

l. The combination with an angle-iron tooth-head, of a spring-tooth bentat its upper end into angular form corresponding to the exterior anglesof the head, and held in place on the head wholly by its own resiliiencewithout the employment ofseparate fastenings, or cutting or perforatingthe head.

2. The combination with an angle-iron tooth-head, of a spring-tooth bentat its upper end into angular form corresponding to the exterior anglesof the head, said tooth having also a plurality of coils lying in therecessed side of the head, one of said coils engaging the interior wallsof the head to assist in holding the tooth, and the other coil beingfree of said walls so as to provide the necessary elasticity for theworking portion of the tooth.

3. The combination with a tooth-head of channel-iron having twohorizontal flanges and one vertical flange, of a spring-tooth bent atits upper end as at h, and having a horizontal extension dprojectingforward across the top flange, a vertical extension 9 passing downwardacross the front face of the head, a rearward extension 71 engaging thelower corner e of the head, and a coil 0 engaging the inner walls of thevertical and lower horizontal flanges.

4. The combination with a tooth-head of angle-iron having a horizontaland a vertical flange, of a spring-tooth bent at its upper end as at h,and having a horizontal extension 61 projecting forward across thehorizontal flange, a vertical extension g passing downward across thevertical flange, and a rear extension h engaging the lower corner of thevertical flange.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JAMES MACPHAIL.

Witnesses:

OHAs. N. CHAMBERS, G. A. RANNEY.

